Netherlands says Omicron variant was already in country earlier than previously thought “It conjures up all sorts of terrible images in people’s minds about Ebola-like catastrophes.”įear-related behaviors played an important role in shaping the 2013–2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, according to authors of a Public Health Emergency COVID-19 Initiative report. “There is no escaping that there is a fear of viruses that exist in Africa,” Remi Adekoya, a political analyst and lecturer at the University of York in England, told CNN. South Africa deserves praise for alerting the world, not punishment,” tweeted Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Amesh Adalja. “This is the predictable negative consequence of the ill-advised travel bans (which should be rescinded immediately). Surprisingly, even Spain that hosts this UNWTO General Assembly, with all the immunities vested in UN organisations, red-listed most SADC countries, making it impossible for my colleagues in these countries to participate in this important event,” Sisulu said.Īfrica’s rage over the bans spread internationally as hundreds also expressed anger on social media. “For reasons that remain unknown to us, several countries went on to impose travel restrictions on South Africa. In an address to the United Nations World Tourism General Assembly in Madrid on Wednesday, South Africa’s Minister of Tourism, Lindiwe Sisulu, condemned the bans and called out Spanish officials for making it “impossible” for southern African representatives to attend due to new travel restrictions. “We do not want to see countries penalized for sharing information, because this is how WHO and our partners, this is how we make assessments and how we provide advice,” she said. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead on Covid-19, said that travel bans have limited the ability of South African researchers to ship virus samples out of the country, “so there are other implications for these travel bans that are out there.” Sleeping in cars, teaching on Zoom and several cancellations: These travelers are stranded over restrictions tied to the Omicron variant We call on all countries to take rational, proportional risk reduction measures in keeping with international health regulations,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in his opening remarks at a WHO briefing Wednesday. “It’s deeply concerning to me that those countries are now being penalized by others for doing the right thing. The countries restricting travel include the United States, which barred entry to travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi. That list has rapidly expanded since the weekend, in spite of warnings from researchers that the threat the new variant poses is not yet clear. Covid measures must be based on science, not Afrophobia.” “But the unilateral travel bans now imposed on countries by the UK, EU, US, Australia, and others are uncalled for. “We are all concerned about the new Covid variant and owe South Africa’s scientists our thanks for identifying it before anyone else did,” Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera said in a Facebook post on Sunday. These countries have found cases of the Omicron Covid-19 variant so far That has prompted a wave of fury from African politicians and public health officials, who are exasperated by the lack of support they’ve received from the West, which they say are now discriminating against countries still desperate for vaccine doses. It’s still not known where Omicron originated.Īnd yet the travel restrictions have been squarely aimed at southern Africa – including countries that have still not found evidence of the new variant. It has now emerged that Omicron was already present in Europe before the travel bans were announced. South African scientists were the first to identify the variant, which has since been detected in countries around the world. Omicron, initially detected in Botswana, has reignited debate over the effectiveness of strict border closures and triggered outrage that South Africa’s transparency in reporting the strain has led to what the region sees as its scapegoating. African leaders are hitting back against travel bans imposed over the Omicron variant, accusing wealthy countries of being hypocrites for delivering new restrictions instead of the vaccine doses the continent desperately needs.
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